I asserted above that school-boys in the middle ages were liable to the birch or cane. I suppose this will not be questioned, but by way of parenthesis I add that this liability seems to have been a well-established practice for centuries. It goes back to classical times for in the schools of Rome the less serious offences were punished by the cane applied to the hand, and graver faults by the birch applied to the back; and there is a curious fresco at Herculaneum of the application of the latter to a boy, horsed by one schoolfellow and with his feet held by another. The royal whipping boys in the courts of Western Europe remind us that, at least vicariously, princes were subject to this discipline as well as commoners.
In more recent times the deeds of Busby and Keate at Westminster and Eton respectively are preserved in tradition, while the reputation of Udall at an earlier time, circ. 1530, may be gathered from the remarks of Thomas Tusser, a choirboy at St Paul’s Cathedral, who subsequently went to Eton: Tusser says, “From Paul’s I went, to Eton sent, To learn straightways the Latin phrase Where fifty-three stripes giv’n to me, at once I had. For faults but small, or none at all, It came to pass thus beat I was.” The similar [203] ]vigour of Udall’s successor, Cox, is mentioned by Ascham. In short, the old saw: “Spare the rod, and spoil the child, Solomon said in accents mild, Be it boy or be it maid, Whip ’em and wallop ’em Solomon said” represented the current belief and practice of former days; though the dictum attributed to that king is stronger than the passage in Proverbs, xiii, 24 warrants.
In the sixteenth century the colleges opened their doors to the admission of pensioners and fellow-commoners. Collegiate teaching and arrangements were superior to those of the private hostels, and before the middle of the century the latter had disappeared: their revival was rendered impossible by a regulation that membership of the University should be confined to those who were members of a college. Shortly afterwards it became the custom not to require residence for degrees after the baccalaureate, and thus a course limited to three or four years became usual for the average student. These changes were of far-reaching importance.
In the course of this century new statutes were given to the University and colleges, and subsequently we possess records, fairly complete, of the domestic life of students. Early in the following century, the average age of entry began to rise, and before its close, it had become common for students to defer entry until about seventeen years old.
[204]
]University decrees regulating the conduct of students in many matters now appear, notably one in 1595 by Goad, then vice-chancellor, which gives a summary of what was expected. Expulsion, suspension from degrees, and refusal of leave to graduate until after a specified time, were normal punishments for serious offences, for trivial misconduct fines are now constantly prescribed, and physical punishments for non-adults are also directed in many cases.
In colleges, the Tudor statutes generally enjoined good conduct on all students. The regulations about the punishment of offences were mostly concerned with grave matters for which admonitions, and finally expulsions, were the recognized punishments. Penalties for the non-performance of religious exercises now appear: thus, at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and at Balliol College, Oxford, whipping was prescribed as a penalty for absence from chapel, though probably restricted to the younger students; so too at Peterhouse, students over eighteen who were absent from prayers were to be fined, while younger students so offending were to be deprived of dinner, and if persistent in their neglect flogged in hall.
As in medieval times, the authorities were generally left a free hand in settling the regulations for the maintenance of normal discipline. Probably [205] ]fines, impositions, restrictions on the food supplied, and gatings continued to be ordinarily used. Reading the bible aloud at meal times in hall, dining apart on bread and water, and being deprived of commons, are definitely mentioned in the 1520 statutes of St John’s College, Cambridge, as possible penalties; similarly at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, being compelled to eat alone at a small table in the middle of the hall and restriction to bread and water are specified as suitable punishments.
The use of the birch was now constantly prescribed, though probably in practice always confined to lads. Thus, at Christ’s College, Cambridge, a whipping for lads and a fine for adults; and at Brasenose, Oxford, a fine or a flogging, at the discretion of the principal, were statutable punishments for various faults, including at the latter College the making of odious comparisons in conversation. At other Houses too, for instance, at Corpus Christi, Oxford, Wolsey (Christ Church), Oxford, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Gonville and Caius, Cambridge, the use of the cane or birch is sanctioned in the case of lads. I have no doubt this was also the general rule in earlier days, and nothing in the Tudor codes indicates that any material change was made in the existing practice, but on the whole I conjecture that the regulations were more humane, and I am inclined to think, contrary to Rashdall’s [206] ]view, that discipline was less severe after the renaissance than before it. In colleges the deans were and are the chief officers responsible for discipline; in the University, the proctors.
A part of the fifth chapter of the Trinity statutes of 1560 relating to the office of deans may be summarized as indicating what was then customary, or at any rate desired, in the matter of chapel attendance and in certain questions of petty discipline. The statute, which is in Latin, is to the following effect:
In every community regard should be paid to correctness of morals and general probity of life, accordingly there shall be two deans to give their sedulous attention to these objects; at least one of such deans shall be a bachelor of divinity and chosen from the eight senior fellows, and the other, a master of arts or a bachelor of divinity.
The deans shall provide for the fitting performance of public worship; see that all fellows, scholars, pensioners, sizars, and subsizars attend on Saints’ days and Sundays at morning and evening prayers, the litany, the communion, and sermons; and see that the same persons are on other days regularly present at prayers between five and six o’clock in the morning. Every fellow who is absent shall be fined three half-pence, and if he comes in late or goes out early, one half-penny. The fine for a bachelor scholar who is absent shall be one penny, and for one who comes in late or goes out early, one half-penny. Every undergraduate scholar, and every pensioner, sizar, and subsizar who is absent shall, if his age exceeds eighteen years be fined one half-penny, and if he comes in late or goes out early, one farthing; but if such student has not attained this age, he shall be chastised [207] ]with rods in the hall on the following Friday. Those are to be deemed as coming late who at evening prayers arrive after the first psalm; at morning prayers, after the Venite; at the Litany, after the words O Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity; and at the communion service after the recital of the commandments: anyone who, during service, remains in the antechapel is to be punished as if he had been absent.
Each week on Friday, at seven o’clock in the evening, the deans shall chastise non-adult offenders. All scholars (bachelors excepted), pensioners, sizars, and subsizars shall be present during the infliction of such corporal punishment, and anyone who does not answer to his name when called, and does not stay until all the punishments are finished, shall, if an adult, be fined one penny, and if non-adult be flogged on the next day.
Each week on Thursday, the deans shall appoint two monitors from among the bachelor scholars for noting offences of bachelors; and six monitors [from among the undergraduate scholars], two for noting offences of undergraduates at public worship, and four for noting those who fail to speak Latin: the monitors shall prepare lists of all who offend in these particulars. The deans shall also appoint each week six scholars and four sizars for service at the fellows’ table, and one sizar for the organ.
In order to ensure the decorous celebration of public worship, the deans shall bring with them to the first vespers of every festival a written schedule of the duties of everyone concerned in that festival, and shall further appoint an inquisitor who shall remind everyone of the duty so assigned to him. Anyone who shall fail in such duty shall, if a non-adult, be whipt, and, if an adult, be fined fourpence.
One half of all fines inflicted shall go to the College, the other half shall be kept by the deans.